Kickboxing: Two Golds, One Silver for Ireland at World Combat Games

A good day for Irish WAKO Kickboxing in the finals at the 2nd SportAccord World Combat Games in Russia with Golds for Shauna Bannon and Robbie McMenamy and a Silver for Mark McDermott.

Irish interest centred on the Point Fighting events. This report on the Irish involvement courtesy of SportMartialArts.com from St Petersburg.

“The final evening of WAKO Kickboxing at the 2013 SportAccord World Combat Games involved the medal rounds for the three disciplines of low kick, full contact and point fighting.

POINT FIGHTING

The final discipline of the night was point fighting. Three countries were remaining in the pool – Italy, Ireland and Hungary. Shauna Bannon started out her match gaining a 3-0 lead immediately forcing Gloria de Bei to play catch-up throughout the rest of the fight. Bannon didn’t sit and protect her lead, she also went after more points. Her strategy was successful as the match ended the third round with Bannon ahead 13-10.

Mark McDermott of Ireland opened his fight with Hungarian Laszlo Gombos by taking the lead and keeping it through most of the first two rounds. Gombos stayed in the fight and finally got his chance with a clean 2-point head kick that gave him the lead in the third round. With only 17 seconds to go, McDermott found himself down by one and needing a point to stay in the game. McDermott waiting until the final seconds to spring but Gombos sensed the attack and countered with a side kick that scored. The match ended with Gombos the medal winner and a score of 9-7.

The ‘adonis’ Robbie McMenamy of Ireland decided to use more offensive techniques that his usual “crab-like” defence. His decision turned out to be a good one as his blitzes were landing and scoring on Neri Stella of Italy. McMenamy’s one kick of the night caught Stella in the nether regions and McMenamy immediately returned to his blitzes which continued to be successful as he ended with a 12-6 score.

In the end, all three countries went home with a medal but it was Ireland who took home two golds from the evening.

You can find all the latest news on the rest of the day’s events in St. Petersburg here :

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